The finished painting of the arcade in Cardiff.

Tweet

Above is a picture of the finished painting of an arcade in Cardiff. I finished this painting on Thursday, 12th December, and it took me 3 weeks to complete, working once a week on a Thursday afternoon. I think I told you how hard it was to draw, especially the tiled floor. When I came to paint it I painted the whole thing with a light wash of blue, and then when that was dry I painted in some dark lines first, around the windows, etc. Then I painted in the darkest tiles on the floor. On the reference photo you can see a drain in the path, but I decided to leave it out of the painting as it would have been too difficult. When that was dry I started painting in the reflections and stuff in the shop window on the far left. I then painted in the white bit on the far right. I painted in the areas at the top, and then I painted in the lighter of the tiles on the floor. I also painted in the little table near the front of the painting. I painted in the black area on the right, and the little triangle of yellow at the edge of it, and I painted the blue above the white on the far right, and the white that is on the blue. I painted in two lights in the distance using just white. I also painted in the sky with a lighter blue. Then, last Thursday, 12th December, I painted all the remaining windows in a kind of mid blue colour. i realised the blue on the far right above the white had a particular shape to it thst I hadn't quite got right, so I drew it in with a fine liner pen, and then painted in the blue again to fill the shapes. Then when that was dry I added a bit of darker blue down by the very edge of the shape that I had drawn. When the windows were dry I painted in reflections. On the left it was mainly blue, but on the right there was grey, blue, and a bit of orangy grey. I added in little dots of white here and there too for highlights and reflections of light. I painted in the signs. The one on the right I painted a mucky yellow and the one on the left I painted black. When that was dry I added orange lettering as on my reference photo. There is also a smaller sign further back which has a reflection in one of the windows. I went over the lights in the background quite a few times to make them look really bright white and glowing. Then, when I came to finish it, I added some little details with a fine liner pen, details that would be too difficult to do with paint and a paint brush, like the cable going across the sky at the top, the brackets and stuff holding up the lights and the signs, and edging around the windows at the top. I also did the white lettering on the black circle on the very far right with a white gel pen. The very last thing I did was add in four potted trees, two on the left and two on the right. There is also another little table on the right inbetween the potted trees. I waited for it to dry, and then I took a picture of it. On Friday when I went shopping I got the picture printed out and I'm going to send it to Wynne Evans, seeing as he thinks I'm a "Proper Artist!" (I would have emailed it but last time I tired to send an email it said, "Failed To Send!"), and see what he thinks of it! I hope you enjoy looking at my painting. I hope you are all well. Have a great night.